Leveraging AI: VicOne Partners with Sonatus for Self-Defending Smart Vehicles

Sunnyvale, Calif., September 3, 2025 – Sonatus, a leading supplier of AI and software-defined vehicle (SDV) solutions, and VicOne, an automotive cybersecurity solutions leader, today announced Sonatus AI Director, a game-changing platform that enables OEMs to deploy AI at the vehicle edge.

Sonatus AI Director provides OEMs and suppliers with an end-to-end toolchain for model training, validation, optimization, and deployment, while seamlessly integrating with vehicle data, executing models in isolated environments, and providing cloud-based remote monitoring of model performance. As a comprehensive toolchain and in-vehicle runtime environment, Sonatus AI Director lowers the barriers to edge AI adoption and innovation compared to today’s siloed approach using disparate ML development (MLOps) tools, reducing effort from months to weeks or days.

“Artificial intelligence is creating opportunities for new ideas that were never before possible in vehicles,” said Jeff Chou, CEO and co-founder of Sonatus. “With Sonatus AI Director, we are empowering OEMs to deploy AI algorithms of all types into vehicles easily and efficiently, unlocking new categories and opening up an ecosystem of innovation that connects cloud, silicon, Tier-1 suppliers, and AI model developers.”

VicOne integrates xCarbon Edge AI with Sonatus AI Director to boost efficiency and reduce cloud costs through Edge AI Threat Detection. VicOne’s xCarbon Edge AI, a GenAI-based in-vehicle intrusion detection system, brings advanced cybersecurity directly into the vehicle by using onboard compute to analyze high-volume telemetry data—such as CAN, Ethernet, and system logs—before it ever leaves the car. With resource-aware model scheduling and a wide range of in-vehicle data collected by Sonatus AI Director, the system accurately identifies security risks. By correlating telemetry and security events—including IDS alerts—across multiple ECUs, a GenAI-based threat model uncovers contextual attack patterns that static rules or statistical methods miss, enabling the detection of novel threats.

Max Cheng, Chief Executive Officer, VicOne, shared:

"As software-defined vehicles become increasingly complex, cybersecurity must move closer to the edge. By combining our xCarbon Edge AI with Sonatus AI Director’s dynamic model scheduling and data access, we’re embedding Vehicle Security Operations Center (VSOC) intelligence directly into the vehicle. This joint innovation enables OEMs and Tier-1s to minimize cloud dependency, improve data access, and accelerate their response to emerging cyber threats across connected fleets.”

A jointly developed case study on the benefits of Sonatus AI Director and VicOne cybersecurity technology is available at https://www.sonatus.com/resources/ai-director-partner-case-study-vicone/.

Sonatus will demonstrate Sonatus AI Director publicly for the first time at the IAA Mobility conference in Munich, Germany, September 8-12, 2025. 

About VicOne

With a vision to secure the vehicles of tomorrow, VicOne delivers a broad portfolio of cybersecurity software and services for the automotive industry. Purpose-built to address the rigorous needs of automotive manufacturers and suppliers, VicOne solutions are designed to secure and scale with the specialized demands of the modern vehicle. As a Trend Micro subsidiary, VicOne is powered by a solid foundation in cybersecurity drawn from Trend Micro's 30+ years in the industry, delivering unparalleled automotive protection and deep security insights that enable our customers to build secure as well as smart vehicles.

About Sonatus

Sonatus is a vehicle software company that is accelerating the transition towards AI-enabled software-defined vehicles. The diverse products comprising the Sonatus Vehicle Platform serve as key building blocks that allow automotive companies and their ecosystem to fast forward to the future of mobility and deliver continuous improvements in cost, capabilities, reliability, and user experience over the vehicle lifespan. The award-winning Sonatus software platform is in mass production in over 5 million vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. Sonatus is privately-held with world-class automotive, technology, and venture investors, including Foxconn, Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC and Translink Orchestrating Future Fund, SAIC Capital, Translink Capital, UMC Capital, and Wanxiang. Sonatus worldwide headquarters is in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley), with regional headquarters in Dublin, and offices in Bangalore, Detroit, Frankfurt, Kraków, Paris, Pune, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, visit www.sonatus.com.